Trump wrong to leave Paris agreement

Frank Olsen

Jun 10, 2017 at 12:01 am | Print View

Rejecting the voices of reason and sanity, Donald Trump on June 1 withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.

In doing so, Trump ignored not only the advice of his own Secretary of State, but also the requests of companies such as ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Chevron, Google, Dow Chemical, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Morgan Stanley, Starbucks and many others.

Those companies urged Trump to stay, stating that the agreement would help create new jobs, assert our leadership around the world, and limit the damage that climate change is causing.

With his decision to abandon this agreement — a voluntary agreement, not one with mandatory requirements — Trump takes the United States out of a position of global and moral leadership, and into the status of an isolationist, pariah nation.

We now join the ranks of Syria and Nicaragua, the only other nations who did not enter the agreement.

In light of Trump’s obstructionism, it is encouraging that the mayors of numerous U.S. cities — including Chicago, Kansas City, Dubuque, New York, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Seattle, and Houston — have renewed their pledge to cut greenhouse gases as well as increase investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency.